Weather and Traffic

A stalled cold front was responsible for brewing up severe weather Saturday, but Palm Beach County was mostly spared.

Another round is possible today and Monday, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Miami said. High winds, hail and heavy rainfall are in the forecast as a new batch of storms form over the peninsula and more roll in from the Gulf of Mexico. Rain chances in Palm Beach climb from 40 percent today to 50 percent tonight and 60 percent on Monday.

Broward County was slammed by very potent thunderstorms Saturday, with strong winds and pea-sized hail. A wind gust of 72 mph was reported near Hollywood. Southeast Broward was under an urban flood advisory and a tornado warning earlier in the day. A waterspout was spotted off the coast of Deerfield Beach.

Miami Beach is closing in on an all-time rainfall record, due in part to last weekend’s storms that dropped more than 4 inches of rain on the area. The April total as of Sunday morning there was 10.39 inches, nearing the 10.43-inch record set in 1960.

Palm Beach International Airport is above average for the month as well, but the 3.90 inches through Sunday morning are a long way from the 18.26-inch record set in 1942.

Conditions around South Florida start to dry out on Tuesday with sunny highs in the low 80s and lows in the lower 70s through the week and into next weekend.

ALMANAC: Another record high minimum temperature was set Saturday morning in Naples — 72 degrees. The previous record was 71 degrees set in 1988.

The high in Palm Beach Saturday was 84; it was 85 at PBIA where an additional 0.10 of an inch of rain fell Saturday afternoon.

Sea surface temperatures have come roaring back in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and areas surrounding the Florida peninsula.

Just three weeks ago, water temperatures were below average after one of the coldest Marches on record. But now, analysis from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) shows significantly above average water temps off the Florida coast from the panhandle south to the Florida Keys, and off the peninsula’s southeast coast into the Bahamas.

Only a small area of the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico remains below average for this time of the year, based on satellite analysis of sea temperature anomalies.

Sea surface temperatures are important during hurricane season — now 40 days away — because tropical storms get their energy from warm ocean temperatures.

One of the key reasons Colorado State University researchers called for a very active season (18 named storms) in their pre-season forecast last week was that ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have been unusually warm all year.